Picking Up from Pep – Progression (FM17)

In the last episode, we picked up our first win in the Man
City colours and a good time was had by all. Now it’s time to pick things back
up and see what the final week of the transfer window has in store for us. We’ve
still got money left over from the Firminho and Riedewald sales which gives us
some room to play with. The aim is to get a new first team defender to replaceRiedewald and a striker to back up Lewandowski.

We pick up Lucas before our
next game – he’s got some good attributes and will be a perfect addition to the
first team straight away.

Lucas is a great first team defender for the squad

We
don’t hang about either, he slips straight into the match day squad for a 2-1
win over Nottingham Forest in the EFL cup. It wasn’t a game for the neutral
though – all things considered. The bright spark though was the debut of Sebastien Dupont, a young guy who shows great potential and could be a good
linchpin in the squad in the coming seasons if he performs.

In
the days that follow our cup game we push on in the transfer market and
although the first couple of attempts didn’t go to plan – I went back to Inter
and poached another of their players. Maxmilliano Romero is a known player to me,
not only in this save and the incredible things he’s done for me so far, but in
FM 2016 too in my Everton save. He’s a guaranteed star no matter where he goes
so the £40 Million we paid seemed like a steal. Romero is the fourth Inter
player I’d purchased since leaving them for Man City in the summer.

I’ve only gone and got another Inter player…

Romero
goes onto the bench though for the next game as it is a little too early for
him to jump straight into the team. Turns out I should have started him mind. After
45 minutes of football against Sheffield WednesdayRomero comes on to make his
debut with the game being 0-0. We go on to win 4-1 thanks to goals from Sane,
De Bruyne and guess what, 2 goals in 3 minutes from Romero, not a bad debut if
you ask me.

We
string another win along too, smashing Watford 5-0. It’s a big result and shows
that the team is really starting to come together under the formation too.
Despite the good feelings going around though, there’s still an air of concern.
The teams we’re beating aren’t near the top of the table but rather at the foot
of it. It’s going to be games against the fellow big boys where we’ll see where
we are at.

With
that in mind we head into an away game against Tottenham – with their squad
being relatively similar to the one we know of today. Kane, Eriksen, Alli and
Man on the Post regular guest Jessie’s favourite, Alderweireld are all still in
the team. They’ve improved over the years though and have added Martial andSalah to their ranks.

We start the game positively going up by 2 after half an
hour but a goal just before half time by Harry Kane puts us on the back foot.
We go on to lose 4-2…

It’s
a second loss in the Premier League and although I could wallow in self pity
for a while, we go again and have Chelsea in the EFL cup third round to contest
with. Although it’s a cup game, we only make two changes to the normal team.
Wonderkid Sebastien Dupont comes in again and Romero makes his first start.

Simple destruction

It’s
a recovery result if I’ve ever seen it. We win 3-0 and it’s unbelievably comfortable, far too comfortable against my beloved Chelsea. The cynical part
of my brain suggests they deserve the result, as they rejected my job
application twice before hand!

The
following 3 Premier League games let us stretch our attacking muscles. 4-0, 5-0
and 3-0 results against Fulham, West Brom and West Ham respectively gives us a
massive boost up the table. That’s 12 goals scored and 0 conceded in 3 games.

Next
up is the first Manchester derby – god I hate Manchester United… More on that in the next episode.